


Chapter 2: An Evening at an Earth Mall

by PlanceGardener21



Series: Days and Nights in the Garden of Voltron [2]
Category: Voltron Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Hunay, Romance, kallura, plance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-24 21:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21565531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlanceGardener21/pseuds/PlanceGardener21
Summary: Sam is overprotective, Colleen is supportive, Hunk texts Lance at the mall, and Lance nearly dies of second hand embarrassment when he realizes that Katie Holt, is in fact, not a girl, but a young woman.
Relationships: Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance/Pidge | Katie Holt, plance - Relationship
Series: Days and Nights in the Garden of Voltron [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554187
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Chapter 2: An Evening at an Earth Mall

After heading to the men’s locker room to change out of his Garrison uniform and into comfortable civilian clothing, Lance headed towards the base’s garage to meet up with Pidge and Colleen. As he approached Mrs. Holt’s car, he heard Sam’s voice from a distance.  
“Boyfriend?! Since when?” Sam exclaimed angrily.  
“Since today. But we have been really close for a long time, Dad. We were best friends for the last few years—“  
“He’s too old for you!”  
“He’s a year and 8 months older than me. And besides, I’m eighteen years old, and that’s old enough to have a boyfriend.”  
“Katie, I’ve watched The Voltron Show. Colleen, did you know that this boy’s nickname is Loverboy Lance?! How did he get a nickname like that, Katie?”  
“Dad, that show was totally fake, and Coran gave him that ridiculous nickname. We all thought it was hilarious because Lance hasn’t ever really had a serious girlfriend before—“  
“Your friends say that he’s the biggest flirt in the Galaxy. How do you know he won’t break your heart?”  
“Dad, please. Lance is a great guy. He’s sweet and funny and honest and brave. And I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now if it weren’t for him. He’s saved my life quite a few times.”  
Sam exhaled, then was silent, pondering all of this. Lance stood in shadow, behind a large armored vehicle that kept him hidden from view. His heart was hammering in his chest. He wanted the Holts to like him. What could he do to earn Sam’s trust?  
“Colleen, what do you think of all this?”  
“Well, he seems like a nice young man, and I trust our daughter’s judgement.”  
“Thanks, Mom.”  
“Also, he’s probably heading this way right now, so you had better be on your best behavior, Sam.”  
“All right, but whether you are eighteen or eighty, Katie Holt, so long as you live under my roof, you will have a curfew when you go out at night with that young man. Is that clear?”  
“Yes, sir.”  
Lance knew he had to face Sam eventually, but at the moment he just wanted to stay hidden. He took a deep breath, and stepped forward into the light.  
“There he is.” Pidge waved, smiling at him as she moved toward him.  
Lance enveloped Pidge in his arms, and she squeezed him tightly, giving him a swift kiss on the cheek. He grinned at her.  
“Hello everyone!” He turned to Sam and snapped to attention to give a salute. “Commander Holt, sir.”  
Sam saluted him in return. “Paladin.” Lance extended his right hand and Sam shook it cordially. “So, I hear you are escorting my daughter to the Garrison Ball.”  
“Yes, sir.” Pidge took Lance’s left hand, giving it a little squeeze. He smiled at her, then turned back to Sam. “It’s a great honor sir. I think I must be the luckiest guy in the universe.” Pidge beamed at him, and they both blushed as pink as the sunset over the grand mesa just beyond the western gate.  
Sam felt a wave of nostalgia, remembering how young he and Colleen were when they first started dating. For a moment, Lance reminded him of himself at that age. The genuine affection between the two of young people was apparent. He honestly couldn’t remember seeing his daughter so happy since she returned home from space, and for a moment he felt a pang of regret. He had missed so much of her growing up while he was a prisoner of the Galra. She matured into a brilliant, courageous young woman, one who had fought warlords and sentries, bounty hunters and space pirates, and who had helped save the universe from destruction alongside this awkwardly earnest, gangly young man who obviously wore his heart on his sleeve.  
“You kids have a nice time at the mall. Matt and I are eating supper in the mess hall tonight, and then we’re finishing up a few things in the lab before the weekend.”  
“Well, I’ve had a notion. I’m making my famous baked ziti with garlic knots for lunch on Saturday. Sam, wouldn’t it be nice if we invited Lance over tomorrow?”  
“Indeed. How does 11:00 sound?”  
“Sounds great, sir.”  
Colleen smiled. “You know, Lance, Sam and I were quite the ballroom dancers back in our day. We could give you and Katie a few pointers if you’d like.”  
“It’s true. Mom and dad gave me dancing lessons since I was little, whether I liked it or not.”  
“She’s a natural,” Sam added.  
“My parents taught me most of the traditional Latin American dances when I was just a kid, but I am really out of practice. This is going to be fun!” Lance said with enthusiasm.  
“Well, we’re all set, then. We had better head out towards the mall,” Colleen said cheerfully. “We’ll be home around ten, dear.” She kissed her husband goodbye and got into the driver’s seat. Katie, to her mother’s surprise, didn’t want to sit in the front passenger’s seat as she usually did. She sat on the back seat with Lance, who couldn’t seem to wipe the dreamy smile off of his face if he tried. As they sped away across the desert Colleen was almost certain that he was holding her daughter’s hand.

The mall wasn’t too crowded, considering that it was a Friday night. Lance was impressed with how quickly the place had been remodeled in the aftermath of the invasion. So much had changed since they had been chosen as Paladins of Voltron, and it took some getting used to. They encountered nearly as many off-world species as humans among the vendors and shoppers, but somehow it was weirdly familiar.  
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were back at the Space Mall,” said Pidge, voicing his thoughts aloud.  
“Yeah. Hey, look, Pidge! It’s the guy from the Earth Store!” Lance pointed to the skinny grey-green alien wearing an Area 51 baseball cap. “I don’t think he’s giving away any free Kalteneckers today, though.”  
“Kalteneckers?” asked Colleen.  
“She’s our cow. It’s a long story, Mom.”  
“Sam said something about you two having a cow in space, but I thought he was kidding, or delusional.”  
“She was free with purchase. Pidge really wanted that Mercury Gameflux II with a vintage copy of Killbot Phantasm, but we were completely broke,” Lance explained.  
“So we took off our shoes, rolled up our trouser legs and went wading in the mall’s wishing fountain to look for coins,” said Pidge.  
“Katie Holt! You know I raised you better than that. My daughter, the criminal,” Colleen chided, in mock disapproval.  
“Yeah, she’s a bad influence on me.” Lance grinned. “We nearly got arrested by the Mall Cop. But we escaped with Kaltenecker on a hover board.”  
“The things a man will do for love,” Pidge teased. “Lance hit his head when we escaped and nearly gave himself a concussion.”  
“Yeah, but you wanted to kiss it and make it all better, right?”  
“No, I did not,” she said indignantly, “but I had to bandage you up after that fall because Hunk was riding shotgun with Coran, and Keith was ready to eject you into space.”  
Colleen sighed. How had these two managed to become saviors of the universe? Perhaps the Creator of the Cosmos had a sense of humor.

After a bit of window shopping, they found both the tuxedo shop and the dress shop they were searching for.  
“Lance, when you are done trying on tuxedos, you can ask the saleswoman at the dress shop to show you to the lounging area in the back of the store. There are some comfortable armchairs for patient husbands, or in this case, boyfriends, who may have to wait a long time for their significant other to finish trying on dresses.”

Finding a tuxedo that fit him was relatively easy. Lance was tall and slim, and nearly any style looked great on him. He tried on the most classy one he could afford, and then made finger guns at himself as he admired his own reflection in the shop’s main mirror. “Razzle Dazzle, Baby!” He did a little dance, humming to himself as he strutted back and forth, and then he stopped himself, realizing that the other refined gentle beings in the shop were staring at him. “I had better stop that,” he thought. “Sam Holt definitely doesn’t want his daughter dating a goofball.”

After he was finished at the tuxedo shop, Lance headed back to the dress shop and found one of the comfortable armchairs that Colleen was talking about. There were magazines to browse through, but they were all about fashions for ladies, so he decided to check his phone when he sat down. He had a few missed calls. There was a text from Hunk that caught his attention as soon as he checked his messages.

Hunk: Where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you all evening.  
Lance: At the mall. I just picked out my tux for the Garrison Ball. 😎  
Hunk: Wait a minute, the ball? Did you do it?!  
Lance: Do what?  
Hunk: Ask her out.  
Lance: Ask who out?  
Hunk: You’re denser than a neutron star. YOU KNOW WHO I’M TALKING ABOUT. Your best friend.  
Lance: Sorry, Hunk, I can’t take you to the ball. My girlfriend would be jealous.  
Hunk: Not, me! Your other best friend! And since when do you have a girlfriend?!  
Lance: Um, since this afternoon. Since we made out in her mom’s hydroponics lab. 😙💋😉  
Hunk: No way!  
Lance: Yes, way. 😎 *Razzle Dazzle!*  
Hunk: I hope you were a gentleman. She’s a sweet, innocent girl, so you better keep that in mind, Loverboy. And she happens to be my best friend, too. So if you ever hurt her...  
Lance: I’ll never hurt her. I love her.  
Hunk: 😮😃😍  
Lance: She loves me too. 🥰  
Hunk: I’m crying rn. I’m so happy for you both.  
Lance: I call dibs on the best man.  
Hunk: What?  
Lance: When we get married, I call dibs on you for the best man. Pidge will fight me for you, so I’m calling dibs.  
Hunk: 😂 You haven’t even gone on your first date yet, you nut.  
Lance: No, but we have already planned our second date, which is really happening before the first date, so maybe the second date really is the first date.  
Hunk: You’re not making any sense.  
Lance: Italian food and ballroom dancing tomorrow at the Holts.  
Hunk: Smooth. They don’t call you Loverboy for nothing.  
Lance: ✨😎✨  
Hunk: Talk to you later, man.  
Lance: Later, dude.

Lance checked a few other messages and put his phone away. Just when he was bored enough to pick up a magazine, he heard Pidge and her mother having a conversation in the dressing room closest to him.

“Let’s see the next one, darling.” There was the sound of a dressing room door opening. “Oh that color is beautiful on you. Turn around...let’s see it...Oh, I love it!”  
“It’s my favorite so far, too,” said Pidge.  
“But you can’t wear it with your bra straps showing like that. Try it on with the strapless bra.”  
“I did. It doesn’t fit right.”  
“Why not? Is it the right size?”  
“I don’t have enough up top to hold it up. It keeps falling off me. I might as well not wear a bra at all.”  
Lance’s eyes were as round as saucers and his face felt as if it were on fire. His imagination was now filled with naughty thoughts about his girlfriend wearing a bra, then wearing a strapless bra, and then wearing...  
“Did you try the bustier with it?”  
“You mean this white lacy thing that looks like a corset?”  
“Yes, with the matching lace panties. Aren’t they adorable?”  
Lance’s jaw dropped, then he covered his face with the magazine, hoping no one saw how he looked right now. Is this how spontaneous human combustion occurs? He might just burst into flames any moment now. Holy crow!  
“Mom, this looks like bridal lingerie. And it’s expensive.”  
“It is, dear. But it’s so worth it.”  
“But why spend so much on underwear that no one will get to see except me?”  
“Well, if everything goes well, maybe Lance will get to see you wearing it...someday.”  
“Mother!”  
“I meant on your wedding night, dear.”  
“MOM! Can you be any more embarrassing?!”  
Lance had sunk as deeply into the armchair as humanly possible. Maybe if he sat still long enough he could turn invisible. He hoped the armchair wasn’t flammable.  
Several humiliating minutes (hours?) later, he heard Pidge and her mother come to an agreement about the dress (and the lacy unmentionables), and he decided that it would be best if he wasn’t there when they came out of the dressing room area. If Pidge saw his face she would know instantly what he had overheard, and then he actually might die of embarrassment, or worse, he might say something stupid like “Aw, that’s a cute little bustier,” and then she might turn her bayard on him and murder him on the spot.  
Yes, now was definitely a good time to go use the men’s room. He would meet them in front of the store later.

The shoe store was next, and Pidge was apprehensive about wearing the sort of high heeled slippers that would have to be worn with her dress. She teetered back and forth awkwardly when she she tried to walk on such tiny heels, and once, she stumbled right into Lance’s arms. He caught her, and smiled his most charming smile at her. “I always knew you would fall for me,” he said in his huskiest voice. “I’m irresistible.”  
“More like incorrigible. Mom, are you sure I can’t wear flats with this dress?”

Finally, after finding a pair of shoes with a wider (and lower) heel, they put all of their purchases in the trunk of the car, then went back into the mall for a late supper at the food court.  
“Hey, look, they have a Vrepit Sal’s!” Lance exclaimed happily.  
“Mom, you have to try this place. Their whole menu is based on Hunk’s original recipes. The food is amazing!”

It was a clear night, the desert sky alit by thousands of distant stars, some with worlds they had visited, teeming with life. The drive home was a peaceful one, with Colleen at the wheel. Through her rear view mirror, she could see Lance and Pidge sitting behind her, quietly reminiscing about their many adventures in space, until Pidge yawned, snuggled closer to him, and finally fell asleep against Lance’s chest. Lance, who already had his arm around her, kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, smiling as one does when having a very, very pleasant dream.


End file.
